“Don’t cling to a mistake because you spent a lot of time making it.” (Aubrey de Grey)

If you’ve been around us long enough, you’ve likely heard parts of our stories, accompanied by the admonition to avoid the word “never” at all costs.

It’s how we ended up in North Dakota. It’s how we ended up adopting a newborn. It’s how we found ourselves in Uganda. And a host of other shenanigans.

There’s a different kind of “never”, though. The no-brainer kind. The big nothing-burger kind that no one would question. The kind that has really just become a way of life.

You know, the big, gluten kind.

Let me back up.

May 22, 2025, I received this text: “🫣Makes me think of you.❤️” It was accompanied by a link to a podcast.

Three days later, I finally sat down to listen to the podcast that accompanied those five simple words from my sweet and timid friend. As I began to listen to this lady with a southern drawl begin to talk, I wondered what on earth I had gotten myself into: “Who is this woman and what kind of nonsense is she spewing?”

By the grace of God, and clearly a hog-tying from the Holy Spirit, I listened for a few seconds longer. And in the span of a few moments, that podcast sent me into a tailspin. I found myself at one of the biggest crossroads of my life. I almost couldn’t breathe.

Maybe I couldn’t breathe because I could feel the hit to my pride coming. Maybe I couldn’t breathe because of the impending fear. Maybe I couldn’t breathe because I was angry at being misled. Or maybe…

Maybe I couldn’t breathe because for the first time in 17 years, I felt true hope. Maybe it was the anticipation of what this could mean.

The title of that podcast episode was “It’s the Bread.” The intro starts with a medical disclaimer and then the lady says, “I hope this episode encourages you and helps you to find the answers you have been praying for, for the health of you and your family.”

Blah, blah, blah…

And my goodness, the hashtags.

celiac #celiacdisease #glutenallergy #glutenfree #gluten #glutenintolerance #stomachissues #constipation #antibiotics #healing #guthealing #healyourgut #guthealth

As I listened to this lady talk, and then interview her guest, whose celiac story sounded almost identical to mine, I’m fairly certain I had to pause it a few times, just to make sure the room wasn’t spinning. This lady was telling a story that I’ve believed to be true about nearly every other area of life and health: our bodies just can’t handle the processed foods and industrialization of the last century.

But somehow, I was blind (and deaf?) when it came to gluten and grains. It wasn’t even that I didn’t want to believe it. In my mind, it was just a completely separate issue. It was a problem with MY body. That I passed to my kids. And we could NEVER eat gluten again, this side of eternity. It wasn’t really up for debate, because…science. So it was just fact.

But was it?

As she explained the process and timeline of the industrialization of flour, and the resultant product, it was like scales fell from my eyes. (They might have been tears.) A thought began formulating in my mind: what if all the science and studies and tests weren’t right….because they were done with the default of processed (dead) flour? What if, you know, we have a Master Designer, who designed it all perfectly, and the problem wasn’t really gluten, but that we have become a people of convenience and efficiency and consistency and appeal, and thus, nearly literally sucked the life out of what He gave us?

What if?

The next two days were spent in discussion with Jarid, as I argued with and talked it out with chatGPT. (Don’t judge me, I know the pitfalls 😂) I dug out all of our old test results from when it all began with Benjamin. And began to explore (again): What IS celiac sprue?…Can you SEE a sprue?…So you can only see the impact?…Explain these test results to me like I’m in kindergarten…Remind me what these genes are… And on and on, through stool samples and tissue samples and symptoms. We argued a bit, I asked for sources, we turned to nutrient deficiencies, and more.

Thankfully, because we homeschool, I can make adjustments for the days that I bury my head in research and more podcasts and scholarly articles. And that’s just what I did. I found more instances than I care to admit where “the science says” or “studies say” or “if you have _____, you must _____” didn’t ultimately prove to be true. The “science” wasn’t even actually good science!

And so, on May 27th, after prayer and with Jarid’s full support, I put in an order for not one, but TWO grain mills, a hefty mixer, and boat load of wheat varieties from Azure. I was either in or out. I told Jarid that he would have to be willing to be the one to pull the plug on it all if I experienced some of my usual symptoms from gluten. I was willing to deal with a few canker sores, sore joints, acid reflux, brain fog, etc. But if there was unending diarrhea and vomiting, we’d probably have to throw in the towel or reevaluate.

June 2, 2025 –

My first intentional bite of gluten in 16 years. Homemade and very rustic breadsticks. (My electric mill didn’t arrive for several months, so I hand-milled everything at first!)

We also had the support of all of our church family, who first encouraged me to ease in slowly (I didn’t), then anxiously awaited news of my condition in the hours following this bite (which turned into 2-3 breadsticks…I was like a woman possessed.). Typically, if I had inadvertently eaten gluten outright, with in 2-3 hours, I’d be vomiting. If I was “just” cross-contamination, the symptoms would begin about two and a half days later.

Hour one came and went. Then two, then six. Nothing. Then twenty-four hours. Then three days. Then a week. NOTHING.

You’d better believe there were tears. And flour. So much flour everywhere. And cinnamon rolls and pizza and pretzels and bread with butter. So much butter.

I also had to spend a good bit of time reckoning with all of the ways I had been deceived. All of the (truly) good doctors who had jumped on the gluten-free/grain-free bandwagon, because of…”the studies”. All of the people *I* had encouraged to go gluten-free over the years. All the times I’d railed against gluten. How I’d made this my lifestyle, my identity.

What about Benjamin and his story? Had I made that all up? Was I crazy? (For fun, you can check out old blog posts here: https://slightlyobsessed.wordpress.com/2008/07/11/the-story-part-1/ and https://slightlyobsessed.wordpress.com/2008/06/18/the-verdict/) The answer is a resounding NO. But boy, was I ever living out Ecclesiastes 3…there is a time for everything. At the time, with Benjamin, we did what we did and I think it saved his life (literally, by God’s kindness and grace). But if I could go back, armed with what I know now, that would have just been triage, to stop the bleeding.

Friends, if you’ve made it this far…well done, because I’m only giving you the bare bones in terms of the details that led to this. And I know it’s a bit scatterbrained.

The big picture is this: look what God has done!

Look what the bravery of a friend does in someone’s life. She truly is a hero.

I’m not here to give ANYone medical advice. I’m doing this at my own risk, against what modern medicine would say. Even my blood test in October of 2025 confirmed celiac. It hasn’t been without a few bumps, I’m still not eating all grains without problems, and much to my dismay, I can’t say it’s a cure-all…I still have other auto-immune related symptoms. Yet again, another post for another time.

In fact, there is so much more to say on all of this. More to say on the health of our family, how this has affected everyone else. More to say about what I think about health and food now. More to say on how God had prepared me for that moment, listening to the podcast…pointing to another radical paradigm shift (there have been more than a few in the past few years!).

And there’s more to say to those I led down this path…the short story being: I’m sorry! I was wrong! I won’t spend one more second clinging to the mistake I spent more than 17 years living!! Go buy the mill!